


Tikkun Olam

by Eshnoazot



Series: Queen Ascendant [1]
Category: Jupiter Ascending (2015)
Genre: Jewish Character, Jewish Identity, Judaism
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-12-15
Updated: 2018-12-15
Packaged: 2019-09-19 12:19:00
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,996
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/17001534
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Eshnoazot/pseuds/Eshnoazot
Summary: Jupiter Jones does not call herself Seraphi Abrasax, she names herself Jupiter Jones with fierce words, and names herself Esther after a beautiful orphaned Queen who once vowed to prevent a genocide. She names herself Judith, because she is ready to bleed and die to protect her planet, she names herself Rahab who betrayed one people for the sake of another. She names herself Deborah, the prophetess, a judge, and she judges the ‘verse unacceptable.She crowns herself in oaths and promises and walks away from eternity for the sake of freedom.





	Tikkun Olam

**Author's Note:**

> Disclaimer: I'm not Jewish in the slightest. I read the story of Esther, and couldn't help but see the parallels. It spiraled from there.
> 
> If anything isn't wholly correct, shoot me a comment. :)

Jupiter Jones is born in exile in the middle of the Atlantic Ocean with the taste of salt on her lips. She is born amongst women, whispering prayers on their cracked lips. She is born with a scream and her mother cradles her close, and weeps for her daughter.

Precious water is spilt over hands to clean them and Aleksa finally lets a prayer past her own lip.

 _“Baruch ata Adonay Elohanu Melech Haolam, Shehechiyanu, v’Kiyamanu, v’ Higiyanu l’zman hazeh,”_ Aleksa whispers through hoarse breath, “Blessed are You G-d, L-rd of the Universe, who has kept me alive, and sustained me, and made me arrive at this day.”

It is not a proper minyan, but there are ten women witness to this birth. There is no time, no way to find a rabbi to have him permit this prayer, but Aleksa grits her teeth and mutters out the final prayer as her arms cling tighter.

_“Baruch ata Adonay, elohaynu melech haolam, HaGomel l’Chayavim Tovot, Sh’G’malanee kol tov.”_

And her unorthodox minyan respond.

_“Amen, mee sh’g’malcha kol tov, hu yeegmalcha kol tov, sela.”_

She names her daughter out loud, names her Jupiter Jones, in the tradition of her father and kisses her forehead. She longs to name her daughter in her soul, name her in the tradition of her own people, but she doesn’t dare let a name spill past her lips.

-

Jupiter Jones is 1 years old, and her mother shows her closed eyes the curved letters of Hebrew while her Aunt Nino speaks of astrology and the stars. Vassily is in the other room, loudly announcing that Jupiter is no name for a child, especially a girl, and Aleksa grows red with grief and rage. She is exhausted from work, and now her nose is wet with sickness, so she pours warm salt into a cloth bag and holds it to her nose blearily. She cannot take Vassily’s disparaging cutting remarks on Jupiter’s name, and her own sickness with the tiredness of so many long work days.

“Our Jupiter was borne in the house of Leo, with Jupiter rising twenty-three degrees ascendant,” Nino smooths her hands down Aleksa’s hair, and soothes her with gentle words, “Do not listen to him Aleksa, Jupiter is a good strong name for a strong girl. Do you know what Jupiter is in Hebrew? _Tzedeq_ and it also means righteousness, it means justice. _Tzedeq_ is divine influx. That is our Jupiter, our righteous girl.”

Aleksa traces the curved nose of her daughter, and feels an urge to pull her sleeping child to her breast

“It is a big name for a little girl,” Aleksa responds in even measures, “And she is a little girl. I remember too, of our rebbe and his tall tales, of the Tzaddik of the Generation. One person born each generation with potential to become Messiah. Her name is not Tzedeq, it is _Jupiter._ She is not borne of greatness, she is not borne for great things. Great things mean danger, and I have had enough! Enough danger! Enough _death_!”

Jupiter sleeps soundly as her mother sobs and rocks and _weeps_.

-

Jupiter Jones is seven years old, and her Aunt Nino sits her down at the kitchen table and helps her braids the challah. She weaves with six strands of dough and covers it when it is finished. Aunt Nino smiles at Jupiter’s bright eyes and lifts her up onto the bench with owlish eyes.

“Do you know why we salt the challah, Jupiter?”

Jupiter swings her legs and shrugs, causing a fond smile to spread across her Aunt’s face.

“Salt is the most important necessity of life. In the Torah, salt represents the eternal covenant with G-d. Because salt never decays, never spoils, because it adds flavor and meaning. A meal without salt, is no meal at all. No Jewish table should be without salt, Jupiter.” Nino pinches her cheek as Jupiter protested loudly, “Salt is like the ocean, where life began, and purity begins. Where you began, where you were born cleansed for all the badness of life before.”

-

Jupiter Jones is nine years old and for the first time, her mother has held her hand and walked through the doors of a synagogue. The rabbi greets her mother warmly, but her mother tightens her grip on Jupiter’s hand until Jupiter is trembling as well. They don’t know anyone here, and together they drift for the slightest second, lost in a crowd, before friendly smiles are thrown their way. Her mother still trembles while they settle, but Jupiter can’t help but delight as a smaller girl appeared with hands full of triangle biscuits and speaks the words that only her family mutter quietly.

“These are called hamantaschen,” The dark haired girl tells her, with the warmest smile a stranger has ever shown her, “Have you ever seen a purimspiel before?”

“No,” Jupiter smiles giddily and accepts the offered biscuits with reverence, “Thank you so much!”

“I’m Ze, but my real Jewish name is Zera,” the girl smiles even wider, “What’s your name?”

“Jupiter,” She replies and then frowns, “I don’t have a Jewish name.”

Ze bites her lips and shrugs, before starting to bite on her biscuit, “Ask your Mama for one, I guess.”

Jupiter sinks down and turns quickly to bury her hand in her mother’s coat. Her mother is still talking to the rabbi, hands wringing and face ashen despite the man’s comforting smile. She sinks further into her mother’s side, until her mothers hand relaxes comfortingly on the top of her head. Her mother glances down, and her lips press closer together until they’re fine white lines. Jupiter clings to her side until her mother moves her off, towards the seats and settles down softly.

Jupiter squirms in her seat and nibbles the sweet biscuits until the lights dim. Beside her, her mother still trembles. Jupiter curls her other hand over her mothers and stares in awe.

On stage, an awkward gangly teenager steps forward, “ _We first set our scene in the Persian court. The great King Ahasuerus calls his wife Vashti to appear before him…”_

The young Hadasseh changes her name to Esther. Esther becomes a Queen, thrawts the evil genocidal Haman, the Jews are saved and the good guys win.

As they walk home, Jupiter stuffed to the brim with food, she stops her mother with a single question.

“Do I have a Jewish name?”

Aleksa pauses, and then looks at Jupiter sharply, “You are Jewish, you have a name. Therefore, it is a Jewish name.”

Jupiter nods, and starts walking again, but can only take a single step before her mother catches her arm and softens her face.

“But if you wanted to take a Hebrew name, that must be _your own_ choice.”

Jupiter pauses and searches her mother’s face for something, but her mother’s eyes are fierce and hard, and she can only nod dumbly in return.

-

Jupiter Jones is 16 years old and crammed into a tiny corner of the library with a tiny book. She doesn’t have a library card – after all, she doesn’t have any ID – but the librarians are content to have her stay if she needs to read whatever her hands can find. The book is seasonally-appropriate, it’s Hanukah, and she’s enthralled with the Hasmonean revolt against the Assyrian rulers of Judea. The King of Babylon is camped around the city of Bethulia, and wealthy widow Judith walks with her maid to the camp to pretend to be a defector who can tell the enemy general how to defeat the Jews.

Judith enchants the general, and he could offer so so very much, but Judith takes her sword and cuts through sinew, flesh and bone to cut off his head and bring it back to her people. Like Esther, Judith puts her looks to her people’s service, but where Esther marries to protect her people, Judith never marries again.

She learns a lesson here, in a dingy corner of a public library, even if she can’t put it into words.

-

Jupiter Jones is 25 years old when they tell her she is a Queen, and a woman wearing her face had once cultivated billions of lives as lambs for the slaughter. They tell her she is holy beyond all measure, that she is more powerful than the stars, and more deserving of eternal life than billions. She shudders to her core and plants her feet so deeply they form roots.

She is 25 years old when she stands at the alter with a man who claims she is his mother. She feels anger and rage building in her stomach, and thinks back to her mother, clutching her arm and telling her that the choice of a name is something so very important.

She inhales and fills her lungs with air, and she remembers, remembers the words imprinted into her very bones _, “Remember that you were a slave in Egypt and that the L-rd your G-d redeemed you from there. Therefore, I command you to do [justice].”_

She is 25 years old when another who claims to be her son falls into the heart of the planet Jupiter, where righteousness and _justice_ claim him.

She thinks back to Aunt Nino, reverently telling her that she was borne from the ocean, pure and alive and wonders if her soul - _Seraphi’_ s soul, has been ritually cleansed in the ocean.

They call her Seraphi, and the name is offered to her soaked in blood and genocide and ash, and they expect her to gladly take it and walk away. She smiles back, and she is strong in her words.

Jupiter Jones does not call herself Seraphi Abrasax, she names herself Jupiter Jones with fierce words, and names herself Esther after a beautiful orphaned Queen who once vowed to prevent a genocide. She names herself Judith, because she is ready to bleed and die to protect her planet, she names herself Rahab who betrayed one people for the sake of another. She names herself Deborah, the prophetess, a judge, and she judges the ‘verse unacceptable.  She names herself after a thousand million Jewish women who planted their feet and refused to accept despair. She crowns herself in oaths and promises and walks away from eternity for the sake of freedom.

But she stakes a claim to the earth, because like Esther, like Judith, she’s prepared to use her looks to defend her people.

-

Jupiter Jones is still 25 years old when she wraps an arm around Caine and she whispers to _him ‘tikkun olam’_. She explains to him what it means, what it means to her, about the oath and obligation to repair the world, to bring it ever closer to a better future. She’s still covered in the sweat of the fight, and she can taste the salt of it on her lips, and it stings the cut on the edge of her lip. She’s messy and trembling from the fight but her thoughts are on the billions upon billions of lives now at stake, for the sake of a little time.

“The world is just a little bigger now.” She laughs and stares up at the sky in wonderment before she tells him about Esther, a Queen prepared to risk her own life to protect her people. She tells him that her people now stretch far beyond the earth, and she has woven oaths and pledges into her inheritance which taste of salt and hamantaschen, challah and matzo ball soup.

There’s still more conversations to be spoken. Her pockets are filled with breadcrumbs and tonight she’ll walk to the water’s edge to cast away her sins and vow to continue the fight she’s been cast into. If maybe she sits and tries to cast away the sins she’s inherited from a long dead woman, that’s something between her, and G-d.

But for now, she leans into Caine’s side and dreams of honey and apples.


End file.
